Grammar Checkers Improve Business Writing

Someone once said, "There's no such thing as good writing, just good re-writing."

I prefer to say, "There's no such thing as good writing, just good editing."

In the hectic business world, finding time for editing and re-writing your business writing becomes a challenge. However, investing the time to run your business writing through grammar checkers pays huge dividends.

Many of the latest versions of word processors already come equipped with grammar checkers. Investing some time learning how to use this valuable tool will definitely help save you time, improve the quality of your writing, and eliminate the embarrassment of misspelled words, incorrect grammar or confusing writing styles.

Grammar Checkers are far from perfect. Sometimes they can be confusing and frustrating. But, so can kids and parents. You don't dismiss your kids or you don't ignore your parents because you sometimes don't understand or agree with them.

Let me share a few of the benefits of investing a little time learning your Grammar Checker and then using it.

1. Grammar Checkers can catch errors in grammar and writing style that you never knew or considered. That could mean the difference between readers not understanding your meaning and you getting results.

2. Grammar Checkers provide you with Readablity Statistics that show you how clear your business writing is and where to look to improve it.

Most Grammar checkers will provide you with the following two categories of information.

AVERAGES
Sentences per paragraph
Words per sentence
Characters per word

READABILITY
Passive Sentences
Flesch Reading Ease
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level

Rather than explaining these categories in detail, let me offer guidelines for you to strive for.

AVERAGES
Sentences per paragraph -
Never write more than five sentences per paragraph-ever!

Words per sentence -
Average 18 words per sentence for paper documents and 15 words per sentence for emails

Characters per word
The general rule here is use shorter, more familiar words rather than longer academic or consultant words.

Use "use," not "utilize."
Use "pattern," "model," or "example," not "paradigm."
Use "problem," "challenge," "issue," or "puzzle, not "conundrum."

READABILITY
Passive Sentences
This should never exceed 20%

Flesch Reading Ease
This should be at last 80%

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
This should range between 6.0 and 10.0.

If your Reading Ease is lower than 80% and your Grade Level is higher than 10.0, that means your paragraphs are too long, your sentences have too many words, and your words have too many characters and syllables.

That last sentence shows how easily you can blow away your Reading Ease and Grade Level. The sentence had a Reading Ease of 6.3 and Grade Level of 13.1.

Why?

The sentence contained 38 words. It contained four words with more than two syllables.

To make this sentence easier to read, you can change it to read:

If your Reading Ease is lower than 80% and your Grade Level is higher than 10.0, you should check the following:

Are your paragraphs are too long?
Do your sentences have too many words?
Do your words have too many characters and syllables?

Now, the Reading Ease is 80.1 and the Grade Level is 3.8.

Notice how the use of bullets drives the Grade Level down significantly.

So, use shorter sentences, shorter paragraphs, and smaller words and you will reap big benefits. Use your Grammar Checker to measure your business wWriting and you will receive measurable rewards.